Bio Diversity Park

Common Name : Blue Marble Tree

Hindi Name : रुद्राक्ष | Scientific Name : Elaeocarpus angustifolius
Family : Elaeocarpaceae
Uses : The hard seeds are made into a variety of commodities such as beads for rosaries, hatpins, buttons etc. They are used as sacred beads, known as 'rudraksha' in India. Edible paste of the ripe fruit is made by squashing them into a bark trough filled with water. The seeds are valued as a remedy for blood pressure and heart ailments. The fruit is used in the treatment of diseases of the head and epileptic fits. The leaf sap is used to cure stomach-ache or pain in the chest and shoulders. This species has potential for use in re-establishing rainforest and also for use in larger permaculture projects. Wood is very suitable for bent work; it is suitable for purposes such as general planking, shuttering, boxes, crates, wooden pallets, boat planking, racing oars, match splints, veneer and plywood. A useful, soft, lightweight carving timber, also suitable for barrels.
Native: Himalaya to China (Yunnan, Guangxi) and SW. Pacific
General Description:

Fast-growing large tree with buttresses, able to grow up to about 30 - 40 m tall in its natural habitat. Spreading crown, conical-shaped. Bark is light grey to brown and fissured. Dark green obovate-oblong to oblong-lanceolate leaves, margins serrate, measuring about 8 - 15 cm long and 2.5 - 4.5 cm wide, petiole about 1 - 1.5 cm long, old leaves become red before falling off. White 5-petaled flowers borne on an axillary raceme inflorescence about 2 - 4 cm long, petals divided at the tip into 4 or 5 lobes, stamens 25 - 50 present, ovary hairy. Fruit is a blue to purplish-blue globose fleshy drupe about 1.5 - 3 cm wide, contains 2 - 5 seeds. It can be found in evergreen and valley rainforests.